Altbachisches Archiv

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Altbachisches Archiv, also Alt-Bachische Archiv (ABA, old-Bachian archive), is a collection of 17th-century vocal music, most of which was written by members of the Bach family.

Contents

History

Johann Ambrosius Bach, Johann Sebastian's father, supposedly started to collect compositions by his relatives. Johann Sebastian Bach's obituary starts with an overview of the composers whose works are contained in the Altbachisches Archiv. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Sebastian's son and co-author of his obituary, retained the collection and gave it its name. After his death the largest part of the collection came, via Georg Pölchau  [ de ], in the possession of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. All nine motets of the Sing-Akademie's part of the ABA collection, including BWV 1164, at the time attributed to Johann Christoph Bach, were published in the early 1820s. [1]

The manuscripts of two compositions contained in the Sing-Akademie's part of the ABA collection were sold to the Royal Library in Berlin (later renamed as Berlin State Library): thus BNB  I/B/11 and BWV 1164 were no longer in the Sing-Akademie's archives by the end of the 19th century. [2] In 1935 Max Schneider, recovering ABA manuscripts scattered in the Sing-Akademie's archive, [3] published a selection of these compositions, an edition which was reprinted in 1966. [4] ABA numbers derive from this publication in two volumes. [4] The original manuscripts of the Sing-Akademie's archive went lost during the Second World War, [5] only to be rediscovered in Ukraine in 1999, after which they were returned to the Sing-Akademie, which in turn deposited the recovered manuscripts in the Berlin State Library for conservation. [6] [7]

Compositions

Altbachisches Archiv
ABABNBComposerCompositionGenreScoring BD
I, 1I/An/11 Johannes Bach (Johann Michael Bach?) Sei nun wieder zufrieden  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet (aria) SSAT+ATTB Bc 08736
I, 2I/B/43 Johannes Bach (Johann Michael Bach?) Unser Leben ist ein Schatten  [ choralwiki; choralwiki; scores ] motet SSATTB+ATB 08740
I, 3I/An/12 Johannes Bach Weint nicht um meinen Tod  [ choralwiki ] motet (aria) SATB 08741
I, 4 Johann Michael Bach? Unser Leben währet siebenzig Jahr  [ choralwiki ] motet SATT Bc 08743
I, 5I/B/39 Johann Michael Bach Das Blut Jesu Christi  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet SATTB Cnt 3Tbn Bc 08744
I, 6I/B/40 Johann Michael Bach Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe  [ choralwiki; scores ] Geistliches Konzert (funeral  motet, 14 November 1690) SATTB 08745
I, 7I/B/41 Johann Michael Bach Ich weiß, dass mein Erlöser lebt  [ choralwiki; scores ] Geistliches Konzert SATTB Bc 08748
I, 8 Johann Michael Bach Sei lieber Tag willkommen  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet SSATTB Bc 08749
I, 9I/B/42 Johann Michael Bach Nun hab' ich überwunden  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet SATB+SATB Bc 08750
I, 10 Johann Michael Bach Halt, was du hast  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet SATB+ATTB   Bc 08864
I, 11 Johann Michael Bach Fürchtet euch nicht  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet SATB+SATB Bc 08752
I, 12 Johann Michael Bach Herr, du lässest mich erfahren motet SATB+ATTB   Bc 08756
I, 13 Johann Michael Bach Dem Menschen ist gesetzt einmal zu sterben motet SATB+ATTB   Bc 08757
I, 14 Johann Michael Bach Herr, ich warte auf dein Heil motet SATB+SATB Bc 08758
I, 15I/An/10 Adam Drese (not Heinrich Bach)Nun ist alles überwunden motet (aria) SATB 09090
I, 16I/B/12 Johann Christoph Bach Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben motet (aria) SATB Bc 08760
I, 17I/B/16 Johann Christoph Bach Mit Weinen hebt sichs an  [ choralwiki ] motet SATB Bc 08762
I, 18 Johann Christoph Bach Der Mensch, vom Weibe geboren  [ scores ] motet SSATB Bc 08763
I, 19 Johann Christoph Bach Sei getreu bis in den Tod  [ choralwiki ] motet SSATB Bc 08764
I, 20I/B/10 Johann Christoph Bach Der Gerechte, ob er gleich  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet (funeral, 1675) SATTB Bc 08850
II, 1 Heinrich Bach Ich danke dir, Gott church cantata (Trinity XVII) SSATB+SSATB 2Vl 2Va Bc 08787
II, 2I/B/3 Georg Christoph Bach Siehe, wie fein und lieblich ist (after Ps. 133) church cantata / vocal concerto (birthday), 6 September 1689) ttb Vl 3Vdg Vne Org 08789
II, 3 Johann Michael Bach Es ist ein großer Gewinn church cantata (unknown occ.) s Vlp 3Vl Bc 08792
II, 4I/B/37 Johann Michael Bach Ach, wie sehnlich wart' ich der Zeit  [ choralwiki ] church cantata (unknown occ.) s 5Str Org 08794
II, 5I/B/38 Johann Michael Bach Auf, lasst uns den Herren loben  [ scores ] church cantata / Aria (unknown occ.) a 4Str Bc (Vne, Org) 08796
II, 6 Johann Michael Bach Liebster Jesu, hör mein Flehen  [ choralwiki ] church cantata (Reminiscere) SATTB 2Vl 2Va Bc 08798
II, 7 Johann Michael Bach Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ church cantata (unknown occ.) SATB 2Vl 3Va Bc 08800
II, 8I/An/9 Johann Michael Bach
(old attribution:
Johann Christoph Bach)
Die Furcht des Herren church cantata (new council) ssatbSATB 2Vl 2Va Bc 08802
II, 9I/B/15 Johann Christoph Bach Meine Freundin, du bist schön  [ scores ] church cantata (wedding) satbSATB Vl 3Va Bc 08804
deestI/B/9 Johann Christoph Bach? Ach, dass ich Wassers genug hätte  [ choralwiki; scores ] church cantata / lamento (unknown occ.) a Vl 3Vdg Bc 09088
deestI/B/11 Johann Christoph Bach Es erhub sich ein Streit  [ scores ] Geistliches Konzert satbbSATTB 4Tr Tmp Bss 2Vl 4Va Bc 08956
deestI/B/13 Johann Christoph Bach Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener in Frieden fahren  [ choralwiki ] motet SATB+SATB Bc 11049
deestI/B/14 Johann Christoph Bach Lieber Herre Gott, wecke uns auf  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet SATB+SATB Wws Strs Bc 09092
deestI/B/17 Johann Christoph Bach Unsers Herzens Freude hat ein Ende  [ choralwiki ] motet SATB+SATB Bc 09119
deest Johann Sebastian Bach
(Johann Christoph Bach?)
Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn
(BWV 1164 = BWV Anh. 159)
motet SATB+SATB 01470
deest Johann Christoph Bach Fürchte dich nicht  [ choralwiki; scores ] motet SATTB Bc 09850

Related Research Articles

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The Neumeister Collection is a compilation of 82 chorale preludes found in a manuscript copy produced by Johann Gottfried Neumeister (1757–1840). When the manuscript was rediscovered at Yale University in the 1980s it appeared to contain 31 previously unknown early chorale settings by Johann Sebastian Bach, which were added to the BWV catalogue as Nos. 1090–1120, and published in 1985.

"Bist du bei mir, geh ich mit Freuden" is an aria from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel's opera Diomedes, which was first staged on 16 November 1718. The aria is best known as "Bist du bei mir," BWV 508, a version for voice and continuo found as No. 25 in the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.

<i>Jesu, meine Freude</i>, BWV 227 Motet by Johann Sebastian Bach

Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227, is a motet by Johann Sebastian Bach. The longest and most musically complex of Bach's motets, it is set in eleven movements for up to five voices. It is named after the Lutheran hymn "Jesu, meine Freude" with words by Johann Franck, first published in 1653. The motet contains the six stanzas of the hymn in its odd-numbered movements. The hymn tune by Johann Crüger appears in all of these movements in different styles of chorale settings. The text of the motet's even-numbered movements is taken from the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, a passage that influenced key Lutheran teachings. The hymn, written in the first person with a focus on an emotional bond with Jesus, forms a contrasting expansion of the doctrinal biblical text. Bach set both texts alternating with and complementing each other, in a structure of symmetries on different layers.

<i>Komm, Jesu, komm</i>, BWV 229 Motet by Johann Sebastian Bach

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<i>Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt</i> Pasticcio Passion oratorio

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">BWV Anh.</span> Abbreviation for contentious attributions to Bach

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The Kyrie–Gloria Mass for double choir, BWV Anh. 167, is a mass composition in G major by an unknown composer. The work was likely composed in the last quarter of the 17th century. The composition has two sections, a Kyrie and a Gloria, each subdivided in three movements. It has twenty-two parts for performers: twelve parts for singers, and ten for instrumentalists, including strings, wind instruments and organ. Johann Sebastian Bach may have encountered the work around 1710, when he was employed in Weimar. In the 1730s he produced a manuscript copy of the Mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bach's early cantatas</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bach Digital</span> Online database of Bach family compositions

Bach Digital, developed by the Bach Archive in Leipzig, is an online database which gives access to information on compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and members of his family. Early manuscripts of such compositions are a major focus of the website, which provides access to high-resolution digitized versions of many of these. Scholarship on manuscripts and versions of compositions is summarized on separate pages, with references to scholarly sources and editions. The database portal has been online since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organ Sonatas (Bach)</span>

The organ sonatas, BWV 525–530 by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six sonatas in trio sonata form. Each of the sonatas has three movements, with three independent parts in the two manuals and obbligato pedal. The collection was put together in Leipzig in the late 1720s and contained reworkings of prior compositions by Bach from earlier cantatas, organ works and chamber music as well as some newly composed movements. The sixth sonata, BWV 530, is the only one for which all three movements were specially composed for the collection. When played on an organ, the second manual part is often played an octave lower on the keyboard with appropriate registration. Commentators have suggested that the collection might partly have been intended for private study to perfect organ technique, some pointing out that its compass allows it to be played on a pedal clavichord. The collection of sonatas is generally regarded as one of Bach's masterpieces for organ. The sonatas are also considered to be amongst his most difficult compositions for the instrument.

The Dietel manuscript, D-LEb Peters Ms. R 18, also known as the Dietel Collection and, in German, Choralsammlung Dietel, is the oldest extant manuscript with a large collection of four-part chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach. It contains 149 of Bach's chorale harmonisations and originated around 1735. The music in the manuscript was copied by Johann Ludwig Dietel, one of Bach's pupils from the Thomasschule.

<i>Der Gerechte kömmt um</i> (motet) Motet with arrangement attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach

Der Gerechte kömmt um, BWV 1149, is a motet for SSATB singers and instrumental ensemble, which, for its music, is based on the five-part a cappella motet Tristis est anima mea attributed to Johann Kuhnau, and has the Luther Bible translation of Isaiah 57:1–2 as text. The arrangement of the Latin motet, that is, transposing it to E minor, adjusting its music to the new text, and expanding it with an instrumental score for two traversos, two oboes, strings and basso continuo, is attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. The setting is found in a manuscript copy, likely written down in the 1750s, of Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt, a Passion oratorio which is a pasticcio based on compositions by, among others, Carl Heinrich Graun, Georg Philipp Telemann and Bach. Likely Der Gerechte kömmt um existed as a stand-alone motet, for example for performance on Good Friday or at a funeral, before being adopted in the pasticcio.

References

  1. Melamed 1988, pp. 495–498.
  2. Melamed 1988, pp. 497–498.
  3. Melamed 1988, pp. 495–496.
  4. 1 2 Schneider 1935/1966.
  5. Melamed 1988, p. 496.
  6. Fischer/Kornemann 2009.
  7. Veit 2007.

Sources